No Longer Dwarfed By Disney, Orlando's Booming On Its Own

Since 1971, when Walt Disney World first opened its gates, metropolitan Orlando has been transformed by the company a mouse built. But in the past five years, it has grown up more on its own.

In 1981, as metro Orlando approached 800,000 in population, ''it began to pass a threshold, a magic number,'' said Paul Waters, president of Time Commercial Inc., a commercial real estate company in Orlando.

As any city hits a population of 800,000, ''the dynamic of growth begins to feed on itself,'' Waters said. At that level, companies stop sending sales representatives into a town. They open up branches or subsidiaries instead, Waters said.

Economist Martin Kessler, president of Econometrics Corp. in Winter Park, agreed. ''Disney was a tremendous economic boost to the area and a large impetus to our growth,'' Kessler said.

However, because metro Orlando is getting more than its fair share of Florida's expanding population, ''there is no doubt that this area has a very exciting future,'' Kessler said, even if Disney World never spends another dime or adds another job.

''I don't think Disney will continue to be the steam engine of our growth that it has been,'' Kessler said. ''It will just be a large car on the train.''

Disney World does plan, though, to invest more in its 27,000-acre resort and will continue to affect metro Orlando's growth.

The company tops the list of big-spenders on regional development. The East Central Florida Regional Planning Council estimates that Disney will spend $595 million on projects through 1989.

Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, chairman and president, respectively, of the Walt Disney Co., Disney World's parent, have made bold moves to revitalize the $2 billion company. The two former Hollywood executives were picked to run Disney two years ago after the company was shaken by two takeover attempts.

In the past year, Eisner and Wells have announced three major additions to Disney World's 27,000 acres: a $300 million movie studio and tour and a $100 million, 900-room hotel called the Grand Floridian.

Disney isn't saying how much it will spend on the third big project: a nighttime entertainment complex called Pleasure Island that will be added to its Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village.

Another project on Disney's drawing boards is a water-thrill park called Splash. Disney World President Richard Nunis has said the park may be put near Kissimmee on Disney land fronting U.S. Highway 192.

Eisner and Wells have said Disney may build a futuristic, state-of-the- art industrial park, and they have hinted they will seek blue-chip corporations as tenants. Recently, Disney Development Co., a subsidiary charged with developing Disney's Florida land, hired its first commercial real estate specialist.

As Disney moves forward with those developments, it could spark a second development boom.

William Weaver, a business professor at the University of Central Florida, said, ''It sounds trite to say that development sparks more development -- but that's what happens.''

Policy changes that Eisner and Wells have made at Disney World already have boosted the number of tourists coming to metro Orlando.

Last year Eisner and Wells departed from Disney tradition, using television commercials instead of promotional campaigns to advertise Disney World. Last year's ad blitz, as well as one last spring that cost $17 million, resulted in a flood of tourists to Central Florida.

Disney's third major advertising campaign started last month.

Rene Welti, assistant director of the Florida Tourism Division, a part of the state Commerce Department, said one reason Florida tourism is so healthy ''is that Disney's ad budget has gone from zero to more than $17 million.''

Disney's Magic Kingdom and Epcot parks are the first- and second-most popular tourist destinations in Florida, according to Tourism Division surveys, and thus are partly responsible for the 8 percent average annual growth in the number of tourists coming to Florida since 1980.

Abe Pizam, director of the Dick Pope Sr. Institute for Tourism Studies at UCF, has estimated that tourism will exceed the state's 8 percent growth rate in 1986.

In addition to their aggressive marketing campaigns, Eisner and Wells continue to pump millions into improvements at Disney World.

Two weeks ago, Captain EO, a new three-dimensional film, opened at Epcot's Journey to Imagination pavilion. Disney would not comment about reports that the movie, which also plays at Disneyland in California, cost at least $10 million to make.

Kessler, the economist, said it isn't clear whether metro Orlando will continue to expand as rapidly as it has in the past five years. However, a brief look at recent growth shows how far the area has come.